With the Pistons struggling with injuries to Andre Drummond and Brandon Knight, an unfortunate byproduct has been heightened scrutinizing of Greg Monroe, and in particular, of his porous defense.

Criticism of Monroe should be expected -- he’s the best player on the team, he’ll likely command a max contract once he gets to free agency (if Roy Hibbert was worth max money to Indiana and Portland, who signed him to an offer sheet that the Pacers matched, then Monroe will certainly be at or near that range on the market) and he’s now a three-year veteran on a team that has not won much during his career.

Deserved or not, Monroe is going to be a target of critics until the Pistons win more. That’s just the nature of sports.

But another part of the nature of sports is poorly argued criticism, and Monroe is often a victim of that.

Many fans have pointed out that his turnovers are up and field goal percentage is down this season without bothering to mention that, until the Pistons acquired Jose Calderon, the team did not have a single perimeter shooting threat who other teams feared. On top of that, he plays the bulk of his minutes next to a 6-foot-6 power forward who has no post game and no perimeter game.

So naturally, any time Monroe touches the ball, defenses are going to immediately send extra defenders at him.